Very light beverage container

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a container for a liquid or viscous product, comprising a substantially ovoid or spherical container body having a diameter D 1,  and a neck having a diameter D 2,  said neck comprising a dispensing opening and means for allowing closing means to be attached thereto, D 1  being greater than D 2,  said container being made out of semi-cristalline PET, the walls of said container body having a thickness inferior or equal to 100 μm at least in the middle-height region of said container. In a highly preferred embodiment of the invention, the container body comprises at least two opposite flat, substantially vertical, surfaces, and a flat, substantially horizontal, surface located opposite the neck and forming a bottom side.

PRIORITY CLAIM

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.12/090,953, filed May 22, 2008, which is a U.S. national stage filing ofInternational Appl. No. PCT/EP06/067492, filed Oct. 17, 2006, whichclaims priority to European Patent Appl. No. 05109806, filed Oct. 20,2005, the entire contents of which are expressly incorporated herein byreference thereto.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a very light weight container forbeverages.

Very light containers for beverages are known in the art that are madefor example of a semi-cristalline polyethylene terephtalate (PET) forgood transparency and processability properties. Such containers aretypically blown from an injected preform.

Such very-light containers can have a wall thickness, at least in themiddleheight region of the container body, inferior or equal to 100 μm.Such containers have been developped to be manufactured with asubstantially lower amount of plastic material compared to containers ofsimilar contents volume made out of “classic” processes. These lightweight containers are therefore cheaper to produce, and are alsoparticularly environment-friendly.

Such prior art very-light weight containers, described for example inInternational Patent Application WO 03/033361 A1 or WO 2005/04 7120 A1,are known to be of generally ovoid or spherical shape which provides forgood ratio volume/weight.

However, such containers comprise several drawbacks: they are difficultto label, they are difficult to store and to pile in pallets fortransportation.

More importantly, due to the generally ovoid shape, the sides of body ofsuch containers are very flexible and a risk exists that once thecontainer is open, the contents splashes outside when the consumer grabsthe sides of said container. If the contents is a milk-based product,such splashing can be particularly inconvenient for the consumer.

SUMMARY

Therefore, a need exists for a very light weight container which solvesthe above-mentioned disadvantages.

The present invention addresses the problems set out above with acontainer for a liquid or viscous product, comprising a substantiallyovoid or spherical container body having a diameter D1, and a neckhaving a diameter D2, said neck comprising a dispensing opening andmeans for allowing closing means to be attached thereto, D1 beinggreater than D2, said container being made out of semi-cristalline PET,the walls of said container body having a thickness inferior or equal to100 μm at least in the middle-height region of said container.

According to the present invention, said container is characterized inthat the container body comprises at least two flatten or embossedsurfaces.

By “flatten or embossed” it is meant that the surfaces are eithercompletely flat, or slightly convex or concave.

In a particularly preferred embodiment of the invention, the containerbody comprises at least two opposite flat, substantially vertical,surfaces, and a flat, substantially horizontal, and forming a bottomside.

In a preferred embodiment, the neck is located on the surfacesymmetrically opposite to the bottom surface.

In an even more preferred embodiment of the invention, the neck islocated shifted relative to the vertical axis of the container.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the container bodycomprises four flat, substantially vertical, surfaces that are oppositeto one another by pairs.

Also preferably, said vertical surfaces are disks.

Adjacent flat vertical surfaces are preferably in contact which oneanother at least in one point, and/or the vertical flat surfaces arepreferably in contact with said bottom flat side.

In a preferred embodiment, the vertical and horizontal flat surfaceshave equal area.

Advantageously, the ratio of 01/02 is comprised between 1.2 to 15,preferably 2 to 5.

Also preferably, the bottom flat side comprises reinforcing ribs and/orgrooves.

The content product can be selected from the group consisting ofwater-based or milk-based products.

Finally, the container according to the present invention has preferablya weight inferior or equal to 5 g, preferably 3 g, and a total contentsvolume of at least 25 cl.

The closing means of the container can be a peelable membrane sealed onthe top end of the neck, or a screw cap with threads that cooperate withcorresponding threads of the neck.

Additional features and advantages of the present invention aredescribed in, and will be apparent from, the description of thepresently preferred embodiments which are set out below with referenceto the drawings in which:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective bottom view of a container according to theinvention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective top view similar to FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a bottom view of of a container of the invention;

FIG. 4 is a side view of the same container;

FIG. 5 is a top view of the same container.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As shown in FIG. 1, the very-light weight container 1 according to theinvention comprises a substantially spherical container body 2 having adiameter 01.

It further comprises a neck 3 having a diameter 02, said neck 3comprising a dispensing opening 4 and means 5 for allowing closing means6 to be attached thereto.

As shown in FIG. 2, the means 5 comprise a flat horizontal flange at thetop portion of the neck 3. This flange 5 is adapted for receiving apeelable closing membrane (not represented in the drawing).

As can be seen in FIGS. 1 and 2, the diameter 01 of the container bodyis greater than the diameter 02 of the neck 3. The ratio of 01/02 isabout 4.

The container is made out of semi-cristalline PET. The walls of thecontainer body have a thickness inferior or equal to 100 μm at least inthe middle-height region 7 of said container. This container 1 is madeby blowing a PET preform, that is itself made by an injection formingprocess.

According to the present invention, and as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, thegenerally spherical container body 2 further comprises four oppositeflat, disk-shaped, substantially vertical surfaces 8 that are oppositeto one another by pairs. It further comprises a flat, substantiallyhorizontal, surface 9 located opposite the neck 3 and forming a bottomside. The bottom flat side 9 comprises reinforcing grooves 10 to improveits rigidity, shown in FIGS. 1 and 3.

As shown in FIGS. 3, 4, 5, adjacent flat vertical surfaces 8 arepreferably in contact with one another along a contact line 11. Saidvertical flat surfaces are also in contact with said bottom flat side atcontact lines 12. The vertical 8 and horizontal 9 flat surfaces haveequal area.

The content product can be selected from the group consisting ofwater-based or milk-based products.

Finally, the container according to the present invention has a weightof 2.9 g, and a total contents volume of 25 cl.

A splash test was conducted to compare the rigidity of the side walls ofthe container according to the present invention, and a similarcontainer having an ovoid shape.

This test consisted in applying a transversal load to the handling zoneof the bottle (filled but not closed), and then measuring the increasein liquid level. All measured containers had the same content volume.

For a contents volume of 25 cl, and a same transversal load, themeasured level increase average results were as follows:

−48 mm for a classic ovoid bottle;

−35 mm for the container according to the invention.

These results illustrate how the flat surfaces in the container of theinvention improve the resistance to transversal load, like the pressurethat is applied by the hands of a consumer who grabs the said container.

Moreover, it was found that PET water containers let water pass throughtheir walls. Such a water loss usually leads to more flexibility of thecontainer walls as time passes. In the case of the present invention,the water loss remains the same as for a convention PET light weightcontainer, however, the reinforcement of the transversal rigidity withflat surfaces compensates this increase in flexibility, which isobviously very convenient for the consumer, and further helps avoidingsplashes when the container is open.

One of the advantages achieved by the present invention is that it alsoallows for easy labelling on standard labelling equipment, due to theflatness of the at least one side of the container body.

It should be understood that various changes and modifications to thepresently preferred embodiments described herein will be apparent tothose skilled in the art. Such changes and modifications can be madewithout departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention andwithout diminishing its attendant advantages. It is therefore intendedthat such changes and modifications be covered by the appended claims.

The invention is claimed as follows:
 1. A container comprising: asubstantially oval or spherical container body having an outer diameterD1 and a wall thickness of not greater than 100 μm at least in amiddle-height region of the container, the container body comprising atleast four vertical flat surfaces that are disk-shaped, each of thevertical flat surfaces is opposite to another one of the vertical flatsurfaces, and each of the vertical flat surfaces has a circumferencethat overlaps an adjacent one of the vertical flat surfaces on a firstside of the circumference and overlaps another adjacent one of thevertical flat surfaces on a second side opposite to the first side; anda neck having a diameter D2 and comprising a dispensing opening, D1 isgreater than D2, the container is made from semi-crystalline PET, theratio of D1/D2 is between 1.2 and
 15. 2. The container of claim 1,wherein the container body comprises a horizontal flat surface that isdisk-shaped.
 3. The container of claim 2, wherein the neck is locatedsymmetrically opposite to the horizontal flat surface.
 4. The containerof claim 3, wherein the neck is offset relative to a vertical axis ofthe container.
 5. The container of claim 2, wherein the circumference ofeach of the vertical flat surfaces overlaps a circumference of thehorizontal flat surface.
 6. The container of claim 2, wherein thehorizontal flat surface and each of the vertical flat surfaces haveequal area relative to each other.
 7. The container of claim 1, whereinthe container has a weight of less than or equal to 5 g and a totalcontents volume of at least 25 cl.
 8. The container of claim 1,comprising reinforcing ribs extending from the horizontal flat surface.9. The container of claim 1, wherein the container comprises a liquidproduct.
 10. The container of claim 9, wherein the liquid product isselected from the group consisting of a water-based product and amilk-based product.
 11. The container of claim 1, wherein the ratio ofD1/D2 is between 2 to
 5. 12. The container of claim 1, wherein theweight of the container is less than or equal to 3 g.
 13. The containerof claim 1, wherein the total contents volume is 25 cl.
 14. Thecontainer of claim 1, wherein the neck comprises a flange configured fora closing member to be attached thereto.
 15. A container comprising: asubstantially oval or spherical container body having an outer diameterD1 and a wall thickness of not greater than 100 μm at least in amiddle-height region of the container, the container body comprising atleast four vertical flat surfaces that are disk-shaped, each of thevertical flat surfaces is opposite to another one of the vertical flatsurfaces, and each of the vertical flat surfaces contacts two adjacentvertical flat surfaces; and a neck having a diameter D2 and comprising adispensing opening, D1 is greater than D2, the container is made fromsemi-crystalline PET, the ratio of D1/D2 is between 1.2 and
 15. 16. Acontainer comprising: a substantially oval or spherical container bodyhaving an outer diameter D1 and a wall thickness of not greater than 100μm at least in a middle-height region of the container, the containerbody comprising at least four vertical flat surfaces that aredisk-shaped, each of the vertical flat surfaces is opposite to anotherone of the vertical flat surfaces, and each of the vertical flatsurfaces has a circumference that comprises at least one point in commonwith the circumference of another vertical flat surface and at least oneother point in common with the circumference of yet another verticalflat surface; and a neck having a diameter D2 and comprising adispensing opening, D1 is greater than D2, the container is made fromsemi-crystalline PET, the ratio of D1/D2 is between 1.2 and 15.